Skitish
by Nightshade X
Summary: Short piece the night after Suzu joins. Cast: Arche, Chester, Cless and Suzu It's a bit longer than a skit, but not really a full scene, so I couldn't bother to come up with a real title.


**#: --1  
Cast** (_by appearance_): Fujibayashi Suzu, Cless Alvein, Arche Klaine, Chester Barklight  
**Time**: 4352 (Future, End-Game. The night after Suzu joins the party.)  
**Location**: Ninja Village

* * *

_**Notes:**  
-I'm not sure what possessed me to write this, or even when I wrote it. It's been on my computer for several months now, but since there's so little on the site, I thought I'd toss it up here.  
-I'm not usually big on honorifics, but it worked for this piece.  
-Also, despite the fact that this is numbered, "--1", I currently have no plans to make anymore. That's an identifier I've always used for short pieces like this. (This is the first T. o. P. piece I've put together officially, so it's marked as such.)

* * *

_

* * *

It was yet another peaceful night on the world of Aselia. No sign of the chaos at hand, the conflict in the past or what was awaiting in the future. 

On a night such as this there was only one noise to break the monotonous silence: The dull splintering of wood.

Suzu Fujibayashi found herself following that dull echo out of the village. It was not a noise that she was unfamiliar with; while ninjas are famous for various other weapons in their arsenal, the long range and quiet nature of the bow was something that those in the shadows could respect and utilize. What intrigued her was that the sound was coming from so far outside of the village. Most training took place in the safety of the village, especially at night.

Finally she found the young man who was the source of the noise. He was too distracted to notice her yet. Another arrow flew, this one barely hitting the tree that seemed to be his target. There were several arrows scattered out on the ground before the tree, and many more that went well past the tree in question. "Your form isn't very good."

"Hm?" The last arrow shot well past the tree, off into the forest. He looked up into the branches of the tree behind him, where Suzu was now standing. "O-oh, it's you,.. Suzu-chan."

"The bow doesn't suit you, Cless-san."

"Ah.." He could do no more than laugh as he wiped sweat from his face. "Chester all ways told me that I had the hands for it," He looked back over towards his target, at all the arrows that had missed their mark, "..but I never had the mind for it."

"I see."

"Heh.." He sighed, Suzu was straight to the point as usual. "So-"

"What are you doing out here?"

"Ah.." She beat him to the question, "Well-" he looked back towards the young girl, but his gaze was focused on the tree she was in, not her, "..Chester once told me, that this helped him forget..."

"Forget?"

"When this all started,.." Cless moved under the tree, and sat down against it, as he began to explain the whole event that led up to this journey through time. That fateful morning that he and Chester left Toltus for the hunt that spared their lives.

"I see..." She nodded, and jumped down from the tree. "...You miss your parents."

"Yeah..." He looked up at the girl who was now standing before him, "That.. that wasn't why I was out here though.."

"If you're concerned about me," she was a step ahead of him, again, "you shouldn't be. ..The way of the ninja is without compassion."

"Suzu-chan.." Cless sighed and then stood up, "You're wrong..."

"What?" Cless did not answer her as he moved past her and readied his friend's bow to begin shooting again, "What do you mean, Cless-san?"

"It's our passion.." He paused as he let an arrow fly, "..that fuels our strength."

"I-.."

"Suzu-chan, I'm sorry about what happened to your parents..."

"Cless..."

"I know," he sighed again, "..it's not my fault. Everyone keeps telling me that, but..." He readied another arrow and let it fly towards the tree. "..but that doesn't ease the guilt I feel for not being able to do more."  
It was quiet after that. Cless was silent until he ran out of arrows and began to collect them. Finally he spoke again as he fought to pry arrows from the tree. "I know you keep saying that it doesn't bother you, and I don't really know what to say either way, but I think that.." He paused, looking for another stray arrow. "I think that if you decide to talk to someone about it, you should try talking to Chester."  
After he collected the rest of the arrows, he looked back to see that Suzu had already left. "Suzu.. it must be difficult..."

* * *

Suzu returned to the village to find it noisier than Cless' training. 

"..Yeah, well, at least I'm not a pervert!"

"Stop yelling, idiot! You're going to wake up the whole village!... and I'm NOT a pervert!"

Though she hadn't known them for long, it was not difficult to recognize Chester and Arche's voices. By the time she reached them, Arche was storming off. "Chester--..?"

"What do you want now..?!" The archer turned sharply to face the young ninja. "Ah-.."  
When he realized it the young ninja, his scowl quickly faded. Frustration was replaced by surprise and a hint of embarrassment. "Sorry, Suzu.. I thought that stupid girl was back." He laughed weakly, "We didn't,.. wake you up with that, did we?"

"No."

"That's good." Chester finally calmed down, "So what are you doing up at this hour? I don't care if you're a warrior or not, everyone needs to rest. I'm sure things have been hard on you."

"I was going to, but I heard a noise from outside the village and went to investigate."

"Cless?"

"Yes." She nodded, "We talked, and then I heard you arguing with Arche-san."

"Heh.."

"Chester-san, might I ask you a question?"

"Uh, sure, but first.." He frowned, "it's just: Chester. None of that proper crap, alright?"

"If you insist." He sighed as she continued, "Do you trust Arche-san?"

"What?"

"You two have been arguing since you arrived in the village." This time it was her who frowned, "It must be hard on the whole group to have two who hate each other-"

"I don't hate her!" He looked away, "It's not like that, okay? We just-.." Chester's face slowly began to turn red again, frustrating slipping back into his voice. "Keh..."  
Chester was quiet for a time as he waited for himself to calm down. Finally, he looked back to the young ninja. He seemed like a completely different person now. "So what did you _really _want to ask me about, Suzu?"

"What?" This time it was the ninja who seemed to be taken back by the conversation's sudden turn, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on." He smiled, "My sister was your age, I've seen this before..."

"Your sister..."

"Eh?"

"No, it's nothing." She shook her head. "Was it difficult, taking care of her by yourself?"

"Yeah.." He nodded, his smile fading as the obvious thoughts came to mind, "..It was worse for Ami though, she was just old enough to remember..."

"What did.. you do, to ease the pain?"

"We basically just carried on as normal..."  
There was another patch of silence. They moved from the outskirts of the village towards the center of the village. Once they were there, Chester found a small bench and they both sat down. It was still quiet for several long minutes, before the bow-less archer finally spoke up again.

"Every thing's going to be fine, y'know?"

"Huh?" Was all she could muster. She had lost herself in thought during the silence.

"The people of this village are all here for you, right? ..Your parents are still watching over you,- and..." He grinned as his eyes focused on the darkness of the forest before them, "It looks like you're joining our make-shift family now as well."

"But.." She looked down at the ground, "Those bonds are a sign of weakness.. They leave you vulnerable-" She was interrupted by a dull shock to the top of her head. She was so caught off guard, her first instinct was to simply reach up and see what had hit her. There Suzu found Chester's fist resting on the top of her head. "W-what..?"

"Idiot! Don't. be. so. stupid." He lightly tapped her on the head with each word. "There's nothing more powerful than someone fighting for the people they care about."  
After a moment he sighed, still resting his hand on top of her head, "You shouldn't try to grow up so fast.."

"But I have to.. I'm going to be the next to lead this village."

"Not yet. Ranzou is in charge now, right? That old man seems to have plenty of life left in him."

"Ch-Chester! You shouldn't talk of him in such a way!"

"Yeah, yeah.." He rolled his eyes, "My point is, you've still got time to enjoy your youth. You should take advantage of it." He turned his head away, feeling her staring up at him again, "Besides, this is still a village, the people here may be warriors, _but_ they're still people. A leader has to care for the people that they lead."

"_But.. our laws..._"

"I'm not saying that you should ignore it, but sometimes you have to go against the rules. Eh,.. I don't guess that it's something you can just explain or understand like that. You have to see it for yourself; experience it. Sometimes, when you take that sort of responsibility, when others rely on you.. It's not all ways a matter of being serious and to the point, sometimes you have to lighten up and rationalize." He closed his eyes as he continued, "...I hate to use that stupid brat as an example, but take Arche,.. She may be completely obnoxious _and possibly the most annoying person in the history of this planet..._ but… when the action starts, I always know we can count on her. Though, don't you dare tell her I said-"

"_Onii-san... I'm tired.._"

"-that, I'll never admit it.. Wait- what was that?" His eyes shot back open and he glanced down at the ninja sitting beside him. Her eyes were shut and her breathing was slow, he guessed she fell asleep while he was talking. "_Did she just.. call me..?_" He slowly moved his hand from the top of her head and almost instantly she began to tilt to the side and lean against him. If there was a doubt that she was asleep before, it was gone now. "_Heh,.. you two really are the same.._"  
He couldn't help but smile as he sat there.

"..So I'm an stupid, obnoxious brat, huh?" Chester looked up to see Arche floating overhead. Her arms were crossed, but she wore a smile, "It's funny Chester, even when you're being nice, you're _still_ a jerk." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"H-how much did you hear??" The half-elf's smile quickly turned to a full grin, causing his face to turn bright red, "Keh.." His first instinct was to yell at her, but he knew that would wake Suzu. Instead, he put their youngest companion first, "..Go-.." He sighed, "..would you go get her a blanket?"

"Huh..?" Chester repeated himself, even swallowing his pride to say _please _to the girl he was used to bickering with. When he first asked, she was expecting him to act normally: he'd yell at her, she'd yell back, and things went about as usual. His reaction was the opposite, so the question first missed its mark. The second time, it registered, "Y-yeah.." She nodded, her eyes on the ninja resting at Chester's side.

"..Arche?"

"O-oh, right.." She made a quick circle on her broom, then gave him a thumb's up, "I'll be right back, wouldn't want _her_ to get sick..!" She laughed as she quickly glided away.

They were both asleep when she returned. Without saying a word, she placed a blanket over the sleeping ninja. Arche intended to leave after bringing Suzu that blanket, but she found herself staring at the archer. The look on his face was so different than the one she'd been used to. This was not the Chester that she had known, the one she was accustomed to arguing with on a daily basis. This was a brighter person than the one she saw joking and talking to Cless. As she finally left for the night, she could not help but wonder if she had finally met the person that Cless had spoken so highly of for so long…

* * *

It was roughly an hour later, an hour into the start of a new day, when Cless finally returned to the village. He did not expect the young girl to actually take his suggestion to heart, so he was pleasantly surprised to see she had clearly bonded with his best-friend. But he was even more surprised to see the group's half-elf walking up on the sleeping pair, a long cloth draped over her arm. She was moving slowly, but before long she was standing in front of the two on the bench. 

He could just barely hear her talking to herself. Cless could not make out any words, just a soft humming, as if she was singing quietly to herself. She stopped for a moment, as she unfolded the cloth she'd been carrying. Without making another noise, she placed the cloth over the sleeping archer. And then as quickly as he had watched the whole scene play out, Arche had slipped onto her broom and sped off into the night. For Cless, he was too tired to give the scene much more thought. He was simply glad that Arche did not wake his friend and start another round of bickering.  
It was much less dramatic when he passed the two by, simply laying the archer's belongings down beside the bench and then heading inside for the night.

* * *

_**Post-Note:**  
For the question of, "where's Klarth and Mint?" They're asleep, like the rest of them probably should have been.   
I do have a few plot sketches that might bring me back here in the future, but at the moment, I've got my hands tied up in pair of projects (one here, and one private). Should the Game of Life quit kicking me around and give me more free time, I might try and return though.  
And on a completely unrelated note, I can't figure out why I didn't have to fight with the formatting on this file like I've had to with LotM.. _


End file.
